A couple years ago, I was running through testing/watching various WB discs for "rot". Had a high failure rate, around 50%. After going through about two dozen discs, I started to also have problems with other discs, seemingly my Studio Canal titles. Instead of the problems I had with WB titles (same error code ending playback, always at same timecodes, or discs not recognized), things would manifest in different ways. Discs would freeze up during playback occasionally, even during menus. Unlike the WB titles, there were no error codes you could exit out of - the player was frozen. Time codes where discs were locking up were varied (non-repeatable). When discs would lock up, I'd be forced to do a hard reset (holding in power button for several seconds), or unplugging the unit. In nearly all cases, I'd do the hard reset - because once the discs froze up, no number of trying to press 'Stop' would work. No other choice. At one point, I even updated the firmware from 2.7 to 4.0, which didn't change anything.

Eventually, the unit no longer booted properly, and was greeted with a 'Welcome' on the LCD screen and nothing else. It did not ever go away to the disc loading/recognition process, after quite a few tries of hard resets/unplugging. So it's sat unplugged for 2 years now.

Today, I finally decided to take it out of the rack for an A2 I have boxed away (bought first, kept only because it shares parts with the XA2). But first I decide to remove the top casing to see if there's anything noticeably different, like blown capacitors or the like. Nothing visibly cooked. So figuring I wouldn't be swapping parts with the A2 in the near future, I plugged it in and powered it up. Well, now it goes past 'Welcome' and to the 'Loading' and 'No Disc' screens.

So now I'm wondering what may be the case here. Any possibility that running it through many bad discs could have simply worn out the drive? I ask because I remember reading in the past about the 'Welcome' error being a power supply issue? I still think I'm going to throw the A2 into use, but now I'm left wondering if i'd be best swapping both the drive and power supply, or just the drive. After all, if it's the power supply that messed up the drive, I wouldn't want to throw in a good drive to be fried by bad power. But if the 'Welcome' error is actually just a generic error message for a variety of hardware failures, maybe it is just the drive on the fritz. I also wonder about overheating, as the first time I had a SC title freeze it, I didn't notice it because I'd fallen asleep watching the film and woke up to see it frozen mid-film with picture on screen, instead of it being on a looping menu as one would expect after the film finishes.

It is possible that the player simply reset itself after sitting for so long. That is something one should always try when one of these HD players gets weird.
Have you tried playing a disc in it yet?

It is possible that the player simply reset itself after sitting for so long. That is something one should always try when one of these HD players gets weird.
Have you tried playing a disc in it yet?

Not yet. I'm still planning on putting the A2 into use and put wear and tear on that, instead. I'd been using it on a DLP RPTV set that doesn't accept 24Hz input (only 1080p/60Hz) anyways, so it's not like I've been watching discs at their native frame rates, anyways. I still believe there's an issue with it, but at least it is not BRICKED! Quite a relief, as I thought it was after being stuck on 'Welcome'.